ants

Hello, and welcome to the #bioscisews round-up! This is the place where you can find all the important biosci new stories from the past week, in a short, digestible paragraph.

This week’s news

Pitcher plants’ ant trap. Until recently, carnivorous plants fell into two classes, active and passive, based on how they ‘receive’ their prey. Venus fly traps are an example of ‘active’ carnivorous plants, while all pitcher plants were thought to be ‘passive’. However a species of pitcher plant has now been classified as a ‘free energy’ species, as it uses the force of raindrops hitting its unique lid, to fling ants into its pitcher for digestion.

Mammals flourish at Chernobyl. The human exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear reactor is acting as the perfect method of creating a virtually human free nature reserve, and a long-term study has found that mammals appear to be flourishing under these conditions.

Vitamin D and Multiple Sclerosis. Some people are genetically prone to have low vitamin D levels (as Vit D is produced by the body when sunlight hits the skin), and this has now been associated with a higher risk of developing MS.

Novel antibiotic from chestnut leaves. Working on historical botanical cures for infections, a novel antibiotic has been discovered in chestnut leaves, which is active against super bugs – such as ones with high levels of antibiotic resistance.

Ants self-medicating. Despite being poisonous, for the first time, ants have been shown to consume foods rich in hydrogen peroxide, if they have a dangerous fungal disease, as a method to treat themselves.